Border Studies - Notes from Samantha Culp

The Backrooms, Before Hollywood: Lore vs. the Sublime

Before you head to the cineplex (ideally in a dead mall), my Backrooms essay from 2022

May 30

41

4

5

December 2025

Fracking for Cool

On Vice, the ZIRP Era, and Amalia Ulman's "Magic Farm"

Dec 5, 2025

39

1

6

June 2024

An Essay By My Late Mom, Candace Wilson Culp

Along with a note from me, plus 1970s tourist postcards of Morocco

Jun 9, 2024

20

1

4

December 2023

Substackers Against Nazis

A collective letter to Substack leadership

Dec 14, 2023

20

7

September 2022

Highway Hypnosis

From the Flying-J to the Backrooms and back again

Sep 25, 2022

6

1

1

January 2022

Nautical Twilight

End of year notes & recommended books, films, etc

Jan 1, 2022

4

2

December 2021

"A Sense of Being Outside" - RIP J. Didion

Joan Didion tolerating some dumb college kids (incl me) in 2003 + my favorite reggae Xmas song

Dec 25, 2021

3

November 2021

The Beige Room: a podcast

A three-part podcast out now on "The 11th", an anthology by Pineapple Street Media

Nov 12, 2021

1

July 2021

Hollywood is a Verb

A very good book to recommend, a song about UFOs, humid Ruscha

Jul 23, 2021

5

April 2021

Mirror Spit Luxurious Flowerbuds

The voluptuaries of Walasse Ting, sudden tragedy vs slow takes, a new golden age of experimental docs & "bee bread"

Apr 1, 2021

2

March 2021

Fricatives and Plosives

40 Ways to Say Fuck, A Micro-Canon of Chinese Cinema, & The Great Shanghai Daft Punk Scam

Mar 5, 2021

2

February 2021

Year of the Metal Ox

50 Years of Future Shock, A Deconstructed Western & Dinosaurs in the Sahara

Feb 19, 2021